The discussion aims to map out the future of advanced autos that will abide by the new fuel efficiency standards

Only weeks before the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) is expected to complete the new fuel efficiency standards, the White House will hold a three-hour forum this Wednesday on the future of advanced vehicles.

The White House Council on Environmental Quality will host a forum on Wednesday called "Advanced Vehicles, Driving Growth." The discussion aims to map out the future of advanced autos that will abide by the new fuel efficiency standards.

"The Obama administration is bringing together diverse auto-sector stakeholders at a White House event to celebrate success stories in the remarkable resurgence of the auto industry and spotlight leaders who represent President Obama's vision of out-innovating and out-manufacturing the rest of the world," said Taryn Tuss, White House CEQ spokeswoman.

"In partnership with auto manufacturers, the United Auto Workers, states and environmental stakeholders, the Administration has developed historic fuel efficiency standards that will nearly double the fuel efficiency of cars and light duty trucks by 2025, save consumers $1.7 trillion at the pump, and encourage innovation and investment in technologies that increase our economic competitiveness and reduce our dependence on foreign oil."

The forum aims to continue taking suggestions for rule changes, mainly from foreign automakers from countries like Germany who feel the rules have been biased toward U.S. automakers.

Last year, major automakers, the state of California, and the White House agreed on the new Corporate Average Fuel Economy (CAFE) proposal for 2017-2025 that would boost fleet wide fuel economy to 54.5 mpg by 2025. The effort aims to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and lessen the country's dependency on foreign oil.

The new fuel efficiency standards for 2017-2025 will cost the auto industry $157.3 billion and add an extra $2,000 to the sticker price of new autos, but it will save consumers $1.7 trillion at the gas pump.

The NHTSA will finalize the fuel efficiency standards by the end of July 2012.

Now if you can only convince the Americans that grew up in the 70s (the people old enough to be buying most new cars) that the GM 5.7 Diesel was a horrible pile of garbage and that not all diesels belch black smoke, spray oil everywhere, sound like a tractor, and break down every time you attempt to start one...

That's easy. You stick them on the lot with their impressive mpg and let those same folks take them for a spin. When they bring up how it used to be, you can tell them that all of EU uses these new CD cars day in and day out, and don't have any of those problems.

Or we could just stick to gasoline DI equipped cars, and breath in tons more superfine particulate. Or stick a GPF in the exhaust like diesels have to have, thereby negating DI tech gains.

CD is the answer until battery tech advancements can solve the US's petro needs.

Easier said than done. My own mother actually still claims to be allergic to diesel exhaust, though when she was in Europe a few years back she didn't even seem to notice that most of the cars she rode in were diesels.

If you want to start seeing a change to diesel in America the place to start is cutting the diesels from 3/4 ton trucks down to fit in 1/2 ton trucks. Not only will you see a larger difference in fuel use per vehicle, those trucks also tend to stay on the road a longer number of years and truck people love torque ratings.

I'm sure the older folks that remember them would take lots more advertising and sales pressure to consider one. The other 2/3's of the market doesn't even know about GM having a diesel back then. Put it on the lots, it will sell like hotcakes. As VW has found out...